Rolling-mill plant



(No ModeL) 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

W. GARRETT.

ROLLING MILL PLANT.

No. 319,694. Patented June 9, 1885 WITNESSES:

1 I INVEN OR. QhflfM4XjM By 14 M m ATTORNEY.

N. PETKRS. Finale-Lithographer, Wuhinghm, n. C.

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2'. W. GARRETT.

WITNESSES; I INVENT-OR.

ATTORNEY.

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 3. W. GARRETT.

ROLLING MILL PLANT. No. 319,694. PatentedJune 9, 1885.

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WITNESSES: INVE NTOR.

W BY ATTORNEY.

suitable for entering the rod-train.

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STATES PA-TE T FFICE.

ROLLING-MILL PLANT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 319,694, dated June 9, 1885.

7 Application filed February 25. 1885. (No model.)

5 of Pennsylvania, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Rolling-Mill Plants, of which improvements the following is a specification.

In the accompanying drawings, which make Io part of this specification, Figure 1 is a plan view in outline of my improved plant for heat-- ing and working blooms and billets, and reducing them to wires or rods at a single heat, and reeling them as delivered from the rolls.

1 Fig. 2, Sheet 2, is a view in elevation of a train of billet-rolls which I employ. Fig. 3, Sheet 2, is a view in elevation of an intermediate train or pair of rolls for reducing billets as produced by the rolls of Fig. 2 to a form For convenience of description this pair of rolls will be. hereinafter designated as the train D. Fig. 4, Sheet 3, represents in elevation the right-hand end of one-half of the rod-train which I employ, and Fig. 5 represents in elevation the left-hand end or half of the rodtrain by means of which the work of rolling is completed.

My invention relates to the arrangement and construction of the parts of a rolling-mill plant for the reduction of a steel or iron bloom two feet (more or less) in length and four inches by four (more or less) in crosssection to a rod about No. 4. or 5 wire gage in size and of a length of six or eight hundred feet, (more or less,) according to the dimensions of the bloom and the amount of reduction effected.

In order to effect a rapid and uniform reduction of the bloom, and thereby produce a rod having a practically uniform gage through its entire length, and also to a great saving in the wearing and injury of the rolls composing such plant, it is necessary that not only should the bloom be at as high a heat at the beginning of 1,5 the rolling operation as is consistent with the production of a good article, but that the rod should be at a good rolling heat at the end of such rolling operation. This latter condition can only be obtained by a very rapid passage 50. of the bloom, billet, bar, and rod through and to the successive trains or pairs'of rolls composing the plant; and in order to effect rapidity and certainty of operation mechanical feeding of the billet, bar, and rod from one pair of rolls to the succeeding pair should be substituted for men or boys nowemployed as catchers and feeders.

The steel or iron blooms produced by any of the ordinary methods are charged into the bloom-furnace A, one or more of which may be used, according to the capacity of the mill. As fast as the blooms are heated they are taken to the billet-train B, and passed back and forth through the various passes in the rolls of such train in the manner usually practiced in the reduction of blooms to billet form. This billet-train B consists of three lines of rolls, 1, 2, and 3, arranged one above the other, and constructed to form two sets of rolls, 4: and 5, provided with grooves for two or more passes back and forth in each set. These grooves are constructed and proportioned for the successive reduction of the bloom in accordance with rules well known in the art. This train of rolls is driven by the enginerepresented at E, the shaft of said engine being provided with a fly-wheel, c, and is coupled to one of the lines of rolls 1, 2, or 3, the other lines being driven by a system of intermeshing gear, 6. (See Fig. 2.) The bloom is passed back and forth between the rolls of the train j E by a series of end feeds, and by these passes is reduced to a billet approximately seveneighths of an inch square, or, in other words, to such a size that the subsequent feeding may be effected by what is termed. doubling back-i. 6., catchingthe end of the billet as it emerges from the pass of the rolls, and by billet passes along a straight trough, 7, to the first set of rolls, 8,0f the intermediate train,O. This train consists of two sets of rolls, 8 and 9,

arranged along the side of each other, as shown in Fig. 3, and the rolls composing such train are driven by a belt passing over the pulley f, on the shaft of the intermediate train, and-a pulley, g, on the shaft of the rod-train. The intermediate train is located at a sufficient distance from the billet-train to permit of the back and forth pass of the bloom through the billet-train requisite for the reduction of such bloom, and the rolls of said intermediate train are so arranged that the rolls '8- are in or approximately in the line of feed of the billet as it leaves the last pass of the billet-train. The rolls 8 of the intermediate train are formed with square or circular grooves, for the production of square or round rods or bars, and the trough 7 is provided with suitable mechanism for giving the bar or rod a quarter-turn as it passes along said trough, or the turning may be effected by an attendant standing alongside of the trough; but in whatever manner they may be constructed they should be capable of so reducing the billet that after leaving said rolls the bar or rod should be capable of being easily bent soas to permit of being fed to the next pass in the rolls 9 by doubling in. As the bar or billet leaves the rolls 8 its front end is caught and guided to the next pass in the rolls 9 by the curved guide 10. The rolls 9 are composed of three lines or tiers of rolls, as shown in Fig. 3, such combination or arrangement being that ordinarily employed where two or more back-andforth passes are made through one set of rolls. As the bar or rod emerges from the rolls 9 its front end is seized by catcher and feeder, and,

being bent around, is inserted into the proper groove for the'next pass in the same set of rolls. The grooves of the rolls 9 are so constructed that the bar or billet passing therethrough is reduced from a square or round form in cross-section in which it leaves the other rolls, 8, to about five-eighths of an inch square (more or less.) The rod may be given an equivalent round, polygonal, or other suitable form. As the bar or rod emerges from the last pass of the rolls 9 it is guided by the trough 11 into the grooves of the first pair of rolls, 12, of rod-train O C, said rolls being arranged in or approximately in the direct line of feed of the rolls 9 of the intermediate train. In order to do good work and to effect a complete reduction of the bar to No. 4 or N o. 5 rod, the rod-train is constructed and arranged for eight passes (more or less) the rolls 12 to 19 (see Figs. 4 and 5) for each successive pass having proportionately smaller grooves, so as by a series of passes, such as are usual in rod-mills, the red as received from the intermediate train may be reduced to the size required. The grooves in these rolls 12 to 19 are constructed to give the rods passing therethrough any desired shape in cross-sectionround, square, polygonal, or oval.

In feeding the rod from one pair of rolls to the next, curved guides, such as are well known in the art, may be employed; or the work may be done by catchers and feeders,

the rod being at such a head and reduced to such a size as to be very flexible, and as the forward end as soon as it emerges from one pair of rolls is immediately fed into the next succeeding pair, either by the curved guides or by the catchers and feeders, as above stated, it will be coming at different points of its length through two or three or more pairs of rolls. On leaving the last pair of rolls, 19, (see Fig. 5,) the forward end of the rod is run out through a suitable guide, 20, toward a pair of reels, R B. In case the reels are not able to take up the rod as fast as it is fed from the rolls, the rod maybe coiled up on the floor between the last pair of rolls, 19, and the reels.

The rod-train O G is driven by belts passing around pulleys on the shafts of the engines (represented at H, Fig. 1) and pulley on the shafts h of the rod-trains. By preference two engines are employed for driving the rodtrain, one being located in convenient prox' imity to each end of said train.

Ordinarily, the two reelsare driven from the same shaft, and a single workman operates both. By means of a clutch mechanism he throws either one into and out of gear, as occasion requires. The workman takes the forward end of the rod with a pair of tongs, as soon as possible after delivery commences,

and inserts it into the reel, and the latter, be

ing capable of being worked at either high or low speed, reels up the slack wire before the rear end of it is delivered, and then reels it up as delivered, and as soon as one reeling operation is completed, and while the coil of wire so reeled is being removed, he shifts his clutch to the other reel, so as to be reeling the next rod, the forward delivery end of which follows the first one with an interval of but a few seconds. In this way the product of the mill is reeled and removed as fast as produced.

It will be observed that it is a characteristic of my improved plant and the manner'of working it that as the billet is sufficiently reduced, so as to permit of its being fed by doubling, an automatic mechanism is employed as far as possible for effecting such feed, thereby effecting a saving in time, as end feeding as heretofore practiced, until the rod-train was reached, is necessarily slow, and requires a large number of catchers and feeders, who are dispensed with in my improved plant; and by this manner of working I am enabled to reduce a bloom to a N o. 4 rod before the heat in such rod is reduced below a good working heat.

In operating the above plant it is necessary that each successive train should be driven at a higher speed than the preceding train, such increase of speed being proportional to the amount of reduction effected by each train.

Iclaim herein as my invention 1 Arolling-mill plant having an end feeding-train adapted to the reduction of a bloom to or nearly to proper size for feeding by doubling in, and two trains, D O, suitably arranged for feeding by doubling in the rod, the first receiving-grooves of such two trains being also arranged to receive the rod from the last 5 pass of the preceding train, in combination with driving-gear for operating each successive train at a higher speed than the preceding train, substantially as set forth.

2. In combination with a billet, B, and rod- 10 train 0, an intermediate train, D, of two or more pairs of rolls suitably arranged for the direct feeding of the rod from the last pass of the billet-train to the first pass of the intermediate train and from the last pass of the intermediate train to the first pass of the rod- I 5 train, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set hand.

WILLIAM GARRETT. Witnesses:

DARWIN S. WoLooT'r, W. A. SCHMIDT. 

